In the past period of time, Rockets fans have seen the progress of the list of green, from the beginning of the season only rely on physical talent to play the ball, to now know to read the game, use their talent to play, as the end of the season Green is gradually getting better.
But in fact, in addition to Green, another young player has also made great progress, that is, somewhat neglected, he is the 52nd show Martin Jr. selected by the team in 2020, to know that the Rockets did not select Martin Jr. this second round of picks, it was the team deal that cost money to buy, which is also one of the most initial deals after the team's general manager Stone took office, and after two years, the columnist of the US media also evaluated this deal as the most undervalued deal in Stone's tenure. Because the son of the champion has steadily improved in the past two seasons, it is even possible to replace Tate in the next time to start.
Looking back at Martin Jr. last season, there are still many veterans in the Rockets lineup, plus he is too young to have any game experience, so he basically spent the early part of the season in the development league, and with the change of the team lineup and the arrival of the injury tide, Martin Jr. slowly entered the rotation of the team. In fact, martin jr.'s performance at the beginning of the rotation was not good, like Shen Jing this season, frequently caught in foul trouble, and the defense was not online, but with the increase in playing time, Martin Jr. has made significant progress, especially in the last 12 games of last season, averaging 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, including 51.7% shooting and a staggering 39.3% three-point shooting rate, but what is more impressive is that he blocked the 5 tallest players in the league.
However, at the beginning of this season, Silas did not put him into the rotation of the team because of Martin Jr.'s excellent performance, until after House was really overwhelmed, Martin Jr. was given the opportunity to enter the rotation, but compared with last season, Martin Jr.'s playing time and number of shots have dropped significantly, and it is only in the last two months, with the reduction of players, his playing time has stabilized at more than 20 minutes. In the end, it is because Ofering Jr.'s progress makes Silas feel his presence, because compared to the beginning of the season, Martin Jr.'s presence at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is very prominent, especially in the outside projection, even after a bad performance at the beginning of the season, Martin Jr.'s three-point shooting rate this season has reached 34.8%, which is 5 percentage points higher than the team's starting No. 4 Tate. On the defensive end, because he has the height of the shot black bounce ability, so the rim performance is also better.
So recently, many fans are calling for Martin Jr. to replace Tate into the starting lineup, and the team's management also seems to have given a hint, not long ago the team released a message, in order to motivate Martin Jr. and Matthews, the team decided to transfer the part of the guarantee contract for the two of them next season to full protection in advance. As a result, the Rockets are left with a non-guaranteed contract player left with Tate. While this is an inconspicuous thing, it seems to say something, and management would certainly not have made such a decision if it were not for Martin Jr.'s excellent performance.